UN-backed contingent of foreign police arrives

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (AP):

The first UN-backed contingent of foreign police arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, nearly two years after the troubled Caribbean country urgently requested help to quell a surge in gang violence.

A couple hundred police officers from Kenya landed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, whose main international airport reopened in late May after gang violence forced it to close for nearly three months.

It wasn’t immediately known what the Kenyans’ first assignment would be, but they will face violent gangs that control 80 per cent of Haiti’s capital and have left more than 580,000 people across the country homeless, as they pillage neighbourhoods in their quest to control more territory.

The Kenyans’ arrival marks the fourth major foreign military intervention in Haiti. While some Haitians welcome their arrival, others view the force with caution, given that the previous intervention – the UN’s 2004-2017 peacekeeping mission – was marred by allegations of sexual assault and the introduction of cholera.

Romain Le Cour, senior expert at Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, also called on the international community and government officials to share details, including the mission’s rules of engagement and concept of operation.

“We haven’t heard about a proper strategy about the mission on the ground, what is going to happen vis-a-vis the gangs,” he said. “Is it a static mission? Is it a moving mission? All those details are still missing, and I think it’s about time that there’s actually transparency.”

The Kenyans’ deployment comes nearly four months after gangs launched coordinated attacks targeting key government infrastructure in Haiti’s capital and beyond. They seized control of more than two dozen police stations, fired on the main international airport and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

The UN Security Council authorised Kenya to lead the multinational police mission in October 2023, a year after Henry first requested immediate help.

The Kenyans will be joined by police from The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica for a total of 2,500 officers who will be deployed in phases for an annual cost of some $600 million, according to the UN Security Council.

So far, the UN-administered fund for the mission has received only $18 million in contributions from Canada, France and the US. The US also has pledged a total of $300 million in support.